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China Prefers Sticking With Dying Windows XP To Upgrading
tdog17 writes "China says it wants Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP because that will help in its fight to stop proliferation of pirated Microsoft software. A state copyright official says the release of Windows 8 means a substantial increase in the selling price of a Windows operating system, especially in light of the upcoming end-of-life of Windows XP, which is still used by a large percentage of Chinese. That could drive users to buy pirated copies of a new operating system because they are cheaper, he says."
Why is Microsoft selling Windows 8 for so much more than Windows XP? For most uses it's not significantly better.......
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
For now they're still under the delusion that saving money and not needlessly upgrading are virtues. With time they'll learn to throw away perfectly good computers and millions of hours of training for shiny things.
I live here (see IP) and I have NEVER, EVER seen a legitimate copy of XP.
Here in China, it is not really possible to even find a normal "legit" version of Windows. All versions found at any normal store will be pirated. A typical price for pirated Windows, sold in a professional looking box, will be about 18 yuan (~3 USD). There is even a common software program used to deliver updates to pirated XP machines. This software also comes with anti-malware tools, and is called "360." This program is the only way that China is able to keep going with Windows, circumventing copyright protection while still receiving regular updated from this service!
A few months ago I was talking to a sales clerk at a computer market. I saw stickers for Ubuntu on the laptops there, yet the operating system was obviously Windows. I pointed at the sticker with a smirk, and asked him about it, already knowing the answer. He sheepishly tried to tell me how they put on Windows because that's the standard in China. Obviously they were getting discounts from the manufacturers for dumping the Windows tax, and then turning around and installing pirated Windows on these computers. By the way, these were big brand names like Dell, HP, Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, etc. Out of curiosity, I asked him if many people in China use Linux, and he said it is used mostly for servers (he mentioned Red Flag Linux specifically).
Systemd: the PulseAudio of init systems
Indirectly. It's the one with the lowest additional value to its user.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Oh I can think of more reasons than that. For example, Windows XP is far more exploitable as it exists almost exclusively as a 32bit OS. Keeping their people exploitable better ensures they can continue to do what "no US government would even consider doing to it's own citizens."
Also since China is extremely large, infrastructure change concerns are likely high on their list of concerns.
And yes, if they don't have to buy any new licenses at all they should be pretty good to go without spending any more money.
Keeping their people exploitable better ensures they can continue to do what "no US government would even consider doing to it's own citizens."
Captain, we are detecting large amounts of sarcasm in this sector. (If the Chinese want to keep using an highly exploitable OS so that the USA has an edge in any cyberwar, I'd say... let them)
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
"It's the [Windows] with the lowest additional value"
That sentence scares me.
There are dark places in the universe. Depths of irrationality where mathematics are just rituals and sorcery. A chaos where what should never be is fighting to escape. In that place there's a pit that even the horrors avoid. A tear where the tapestry of reality is at its weakest point.
That's where they store "the Windows with the lowest additional value". And that's where it should stay. Watching us. Hungry.
because torrents, are poisoned.
Chinese clever, not like dumb kid in West who use torrent.
The only reason software companies have the new model mentality is to make money off what they push as a new model. Software companies would be better if they shifted away from that and to doing just version updates. 90% of the development costs are paid for on an existing OS, the rest is doing bug fixes and enhancements. I personally see no reason to go to Win8, I don't care for the interface. I tolerate Win7 because I can make it mostly like XP but wish I didn't have to add software to fix the start menu. I think the drive away from the standard desktop is partly killing the desktop PC. The standard XP style desktop works. Changing it makes no sense on a desktop PC. It requires people relearn things, increases IT support costs and slows down productivity. At work my productivity has slowed down going from XP to Win7 because on Win7 I have to deal with more of the little popup context menus that get in my way no matter how much I tweak it and the copy/paste issues of Win7 drives me crazy. I don't like to side with the Chinese government on anything but on this I agree... On windows, upgrading to Win8 doesn't make much sense.
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
India which is much poorer:
Win 7 & 8: 58%
WinXP: 30%
China:
Win 7 & 8: 43%
WinXP: 50%
Africa, South America, everywhere else that is poor XP is in massive decline. This is basically China being the odd man out, they're the only ones who want to stick to XP. Now I'm guessing most of those copies aren't legitimate, but I don't see why that should be any different in China than the rest of the world. It's just that XP is the de facto standard I guess.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Another reason for keeping xp is that they very likely have the xp code audited and custom patched to their liking.
I don't see the problem here. The price of Windows 8 is not more than Windows XP. And if the price is still a problem, just use a cracked copy like they did with huge amount of XP installations.
Or just use the old negotiation tactic:
Microsoft: XP support is ending but we are selling you this magnificent new operating system called Windows 8.
China: Gee, I dunno, the price is kind of high. I think we'll just go with Linux...
Microsoft: *gasp* Well, well, I believe we can negotiate something. Please, sit down, and would you like a cup of coffee? How about this new special price for you...
China: Ok!
I live in China but don't read Chinese. Last year I brought a netbook here with the intent of running Linux Mint. Because I wanted more than the 2GB RAM limit on the knock-off models I brought a genuine Samsung which came with Windows 7. Having paid for an unwanted copy of Windows I thought I would look at dual booting it. It's been a long time since I used Windows so I had a play to see what Windows was like. I found I could not change the language from Chinese. Some research showed I was expected to pay for an upgrade to get Windows, that I paid for, to actual be usable. Microsoft really don't promote legal use of their products with such attitudes! I personally didn't mind as it just meant Linux got 100% of the HDD.
In fairness to Microsoft I suspect Windows would be pirated here unless it was free or very close to free. People here don't seem to care. I guess it is one of the reasons for the low uptake of Linux here, no price difference so less motivation to investigate alternatives.
Used to that Microsoft can sell anything.
Used to that anything with the Microsoft (c) brand on it, no matter if it's the OS or mouse or keyboard or office suite, they are guaranteed to sell like hotcakes.
No more.
With one fumble after another, with more and more alternatives to Microsoft's products (of which many of them are free), Microsoft is running out of cash cows.
Right now they are so desperate that they are trying to milk Windows 8 as much while the going is still good.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Ferrari cars cost just as much to develop as your average ford. However, the number of cars being sold, will make the development cost per car much higher. Add much higher production cost because of materials used, fabrication methods used, number of actions to produce a certain part and yield to the equation. Even if Ferrari would make a bold move and decide to sell their cars at the same price as Ford, they would still have to buy more expensive materials and do more to those materials before they are a car.
MicroSoft may have put more money in developing Win7 initially than they did in XP, I wouldn't know if that's the case. The real thing is that the production cost per copy is negligible; they just turn a knob and come up with a sales price based on a marketing model.
The home PC market is crashing since most people don't need a PC anymore to watch movies, communicate with their family or play games. The introduction of the computer in the home has moved from the single device to smart phones, tablets, media players and game consoles. People hardly need a "real" computer anymore and the budget for one has moved on to other devices. School going kids and students may need one to do school work on and learn, but the requirements for that sort of machine aren't that exciting usually and an older model or really cheap new hardware will do just fine.
Offices don't really need PCs to do more than office work. To be honest, typing a letter or stuffing things in a spreadsheet hasn't changed much over the past ten years or so. Offices tend to move towards VDI where the machine the user has is only an input/output device and the "desktop" is actually running on a server, often not using a desktop OS in a VM, but simply a session on a server OS.
MicroSoft is losing their monopoly in office suit software, server software, e-mail platforms and such. Several attempts to get new markets like search engines, media and music players, have failed to yield any profit and are costing them money. Depending on how you look at it, their game console business is a success, but the net profit they got from it is either not fantastic, or they are still in the red and it's not a commercial success at all. They have a large part of the market, but it's still not clear how much they have spent to get that and if they actually have recovered that money. The desktop PC market is shrinking rapidly and they need some way to keep all those developers paid and shareholders happy.
With the current stock price and results they had in the past, shareholders have very high demands. This makes that they are turning the knob for the Windows7 and 8 desktop OS prices way up. This makes people either pirate it, or buy a PC that comes loaded with crapware to sponsor the price of the OS, or they move to another OS because they are tired of the whole windows clutter and viruses.
In China, crapware sponsorship is worth next to nothing because piracy is much more prevalent there and sponsors expect very little return on the installations. That makes the OS very expensive to put on legally for vendors or end users, resulting in even more piracy.
China has the power to convince MicroSoft to extend XP life and even sell it for a lower fee. If the Chinese government would decide to move to Linux as the OS for all official government desktops, home users will follow that sooner or later, especially if it was free and there would be less malware. It wouldn't be easy or cheap to do so for China, but this XP retirement is an event where they have a clear cost/benefit model that has a pivot point that is an actual threat to MicroSoft. If China would migrate to Linux, it'd give a much bigger threat to MicroSoft than a few German cities doing it. Even the cities migrations have already resulted in quite a few enhancements that make Linux a more viable desktop alternative. Once China puts their weight in, the reasons that keep linux away from the corporate desktop will disappear rapidly. Given the recent revelations
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
He linked the demise of XP to China’s efforts to stem software piracy by making pirated software seem a better option. “These practices affect the smooth operations of genuine software in China,” Yan Xiaohong is quoted as saying.
Windows XP is easy to pirate but Win 7/8 is a total pain in the ass and updates thwart previously working cracks. Wouldn't this mean that moving to Win 7/8 would be more likely to prevent piracy? Then again, they could just help ReactOS, they sure as hell have reverse engineered Windows enough to make a proper implementation.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Only if it is ever finished.
Keep using what works.
Lobby, Mezzanine and Penthouse properties.
I come here for the love
XP is not "dying" I have servers running Windows NT 3.51 that still make more money an hour than 100% of the people here on slashdot. and they are 100% secure because they are on a segregated and airgapped lan.
When you have something working and you have enough spare hardware to keep it working, why waste money and time "upgrading" simply because some idiots think you need to. Short of someone doing a "mission impossible" break in my servers are 100% hacker proof. Oh and here's a tip they ALL have the administrator password set as password1234.
They are specialized servers that can play back 16 broadcast quality MPEG2 streams into digital video in CATV headends. 16 at the same time all from a single pentium 1 processor and barely any ram. the playback cards play the video directly from the SCSI hard drives. The replacement today from Seachange are less capable and break down more. These require nearly ZERO attention and continue to run year after year just printing money for us. and we have enough spare parts to handle any issues and give us a year lead time if we ever needed to do a complete upgrade to current tech. If an OS if supported means nothing at all if you have sysadmins and network people that actually have a clue as to what they are doing.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
""In our article, we describe how the complete concept of air gaps can be considered obsolete as commonly available laptops can communicate over their internal speakers and microphones and even form a covert acoustical mesh network,"
This is 100% bullshit.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Their argument is basically, "Everybody is going to pirate the new software anyway, so please continue to sink money into supporting the old software that we've already pirated." Is that how I should be interpreting this?
They could sell the Chinese XP rights to a company in cahoots with the government (and once you get above a minimum size in China, you're with the government or out of business).
The government company would have the incentive and the government backing to get everyone in China on "legit" XP.
MS gets money now. They get to transfer blame for XP support to someone else. They could encourage the Chinese to essentially fork XP, so the supported Chinese version wouldn't compete with recent Windows.
Sounds win-win to me.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.